METSU, Gabriel
(b. 1629, Leiden, d. 1667, Amsterdam)

Lady Seated in a Window

c. 1661
Oil on panel, 28 x 23 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This woman is encompassed by motifs connoting, like her very persona, virtue. She is about to peel an apple, an activity associated with food preparation, a quintessential task of women. Note as well the book on the ledge, a tome indicating piety, and also the grapevine and birdcage hanging in the space behind her symbolizing love and fidelity.

The companion-piece of the painting (in the Mauritshuis, The Hague) represents a hunter surrounded by motifs apposite to the male realm.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.